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Mitt Romney: 'It kills me' not to be president

Four months after he lost to President Barack Obama, Mitt Romney says “it kills me” not to be in the White House finding solutions to the nation’s problems.

In his first television interview since the election, the former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential nominee told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday” that he was convinced he’d win until Ohio’s vote came in, and that he damaged his campaign by failing to attract black and Hispanic voters and speaking too freely in his infamous “47 percent” comments.

Ann Romney on Senate run

Both Romneys said he would be more effective at navigating the current political moment.

“I’ll look at what’s happening right now, I wish I were there,” Mitt Romney said. “It kills me not to be there, not to be in the White House doing what needs to be done. The president is the leader of the nation. The president brings people together, does the deals, does the trades, knocks the heads together; the president leads. And — and I don’t see that kind of — of leadership happening right now.”

Romney, like congressional Republicans, accused Obama of “campaigning” rather than governing as the sequester loomed. That, Romney said, has been counterproductive.

“Well, no one can think that that’s been a success for the president,” Romney said. “He didn’t think the sequester would happen. It is happening. To date, what we’ve seen is a — the president out campaigning to the American people, doing rallies around the country, flying around the country and berating Republicans and blaming and pointing. Now, what does that do? That causes the Republicans to — to retrench and to put up a wall and to fight back. It’s a very natural human emotion.”

Ann Romney said her husband, had he won, would have solved the sequester by now.

“I totally believe at this moment, if Mitt were there in the office, that we would not be facing sequestration right now,” she said.

Up until polls closed on Election Day, both Romneys were convinced they would be in the White House.

“Yeah, I think we were convinced that we would win,” Mitt Romney said.

Ann Romney said she had no doubt: “I for sure did. I think Mitt intellectually was thinking that it was possible we couldn’t; he knew how close it was.”

Only after he saw the Ohio numbers did Romney realize it would not be.

“It was a slow recognition until ultimately when the Ohio numbers began coming in and they were disappointing,” he said. “I said, look, this looks like we’ve lost — wasn’t certain. Some people said, ‘Oh, look, if this number here comes in, why, you could win.’ But you know, by 8 or 9 o’clock, it was pretty clear that we were not going to win.”

Romney called his inability to win black and Hispanic votes “a real weakness” and said future GOP candidates must do better. He blamed himself for the infamous “47 percent” comments and said he should have been more careful when speaking privately — as he thought he was at the fundraiser in Boca Raton, Fla.

“The weakness that our campaign had and that I had is we weren’t effective in — in taking my message primarily to minority voters, to Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, other minorities,” he said. “That was a real weakness. Uh, we did very well with the majority population, but not with minority populations. And — and that was a — that was a failing. That was a real mistake.”